2026 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, Sonny really did do a terrible job of hiding that will, first showing it to Eden, who Remi specifically told him not to tell about it, and then dropping it in front of Abby. I'm actually glad Abigail knows, given she's been doing a good job of supporting Eden whilst being kept out of the loop, and I really hope Eden mentioned the fact Remi might not die after responding to Abigail asking if he's dying by saying he's got a brain tumour! I was quite looking forward to Sonny living with John, but seems it was just a ruse to pressure Eden into enabling him quitting rehab. (I guess we're meant to ignore the fact Remi doesn't technically own the motorbike?)

Similarly, I spent much of the episode thinking there must be a reason for Justin being so against Leah's wardrobe plan, that he wanted the house kept the way it was when he lived there with his family or that the garage was in trouble financially and they couldn't afford it. But the pay-off is apparently Leah coming up with an OTT list of renovations so her initial plan doesn't sound so bad and he agrees to it. Maybe it was just a way of making up their episode counts.

Given that Cash had already asked Harper for alternate ways to identify Uncle Fred, I'm not sure why he needed Eden to tell him to think outside the box. Oh well, he got there in the end. Uncle Fred looks younger than I expected, I thought he'd be Kerrie's age, but maybe he's older than he looks.

[H&Alover]

Although Remi had said to Sonny  not to tell anyone what was in his will I'm kind of glad he did as Eden now knows what's in it. Had he said what was to happen to his guitar?  Eden did tell Abi Remi has  a brain tumour and it  is being operated on.  Wonder if she will tell Mali, I don't remember Eden saying not to tell anyone else.  Could Mercedes have signed  any relevant paperwork of the bike over to Remi offscreen or was it just a lend of it? 

As I  said Cash was doing a bit of lateral thinking there by looking up if Nacho had been registered and to whom.  At least 'Uncle' Fred  did  something legal. Cash  could have spent forever  by looking up tatts. It was the right  move as Harper recognised his  photo  right  away.  He's been brought in but that smirk of his gave a BIG clue as to what he was going to say and he told Cash and David that  it was Tane he was dealing to.  But any bloke could say he was Tane and unless Kerrie had shown Fred a photo of him he wouldn't know what he looked like.  Cash knows Tane is innocent but David should have shown him a photos of Tane and other guys looking like Tane and asked "Do you recognise any of these people?"   Did Fred see Tane when he came to to sign his the paper he needs to sign when he came to comply with his bail conditions as Tane saw him.  We did see Fred call Kerrie and threaten her that if it backfired she'd be sorry.  

Then Holden turned up even if at the time we and Lacey thought she was imagining him as his bail hearing was supposed to be happening in the afternoon but as it turned out it had happened in the morning. He must be able to pay for  a damn good lawyer to get him bail for three charges. David was suitably shocked.  Lovely scenes with Abi and Jo all supporting Lacey.  Of course that board having gone missing will have something to do with it.  

 

[James Martin]

Thought Lacey literally lamping Holden in everyone's favourite Motel room was a bit anticlimactic.  I've had to go back and check the Aussie transmission as I wondered if 5 had cut it (the late Caroline Flack was accused of whacking a boyfriend with a lamp shortly before she took her own life) but it's the same Down Under.

Of course, no spoilers for who made it and who didn't, for the promo was entirely given over to Brax & Ricky.  I've been putting this moment off to be honest as the River Boys era completely alienated me from the show.  So the Tane drugs plant is setting up the WA storyline; now it makes sense why the investigation is full of plot holes...

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, after threatening to be competent, David goes back to being an utter joke. Cash might be biased but he was absolutely right to try and verify the vague story of an untrustworthy witness, who gave them a name and nothing else. Did they even ask him for any details about this supposed supply? Again, it feels like there's a big part of David that is relishing the prospect of getting Tane away from Jo, given the speed with which he hands over more rope to hang him with and hides behind "protocol".

And he's not doing any better in the other storyline either, just giving Lacey a vague assurance that Holden is definitely not out rather than bothering to double check. (Okay, he did request further details but still.) I guess I'll see how this plays out, but it seems as though bail in soaps works on the principle of "A character will get bail if that's the most dramatic thing that can happen". (Honestly, did no-one learn anything from Stevie over making absolutely sure a character is locked up before they've been sentenced and convicted?)

While it was unspoken, we did get a few moments to confirm that Abby has a lot on her mind at the moment after that news about Remi.

[c120701]

Lovely new titles and duet theme. Much better alignment between shots and lyrics, although Sonny is now walking again!

I do like that Dean is still such an active part of Mac’s life even though he’s off screen and even though he’s responsible for bringing back Brax.

Is it really better for Tane to run and not see Archie ever than see him in prison visits for a fixed period of time?

A truncated version of the theme for the closing credits I see. It’s a shame it wasn’t the second verse or they didn’t start with “Let me be the one…” instead of “I’m walking on air” to at least make it a little more different.

[H&Alover]

Neat cut away by TPTB at H&A when Lacey grabbing at that lamp but you didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know what was going to happen. He was definitely going to rape her so no way murder but self defence.  But I think and I'm no expert the police  always call it murder when first investigating a death like Holden's but it's downgraded to manslaughter/self defence. 

I knew he had to be the one who stole that board and made that call to Alf it may have been just a fluke Lacey was the one who went looking for it.  I'm supposing if someone else - like Mali - had turned up he would have thought of something else.  It certainly hadn't just  washed up on the beach,  Lacey really had to struggle to get it out.  It was that chance remark that Alf made to Mali that made  him dash off and rescue Lacey. 

Well we certainly know where Lacey gets her stubbornness from don't we?  I can see her point as to why she shouldn't be dictated to how she lives her life and hide away  because Holden is out and about. David was as shocked as anyone that  Holden got bail, as already said he must have one hell of a lawyer and he must be able to talk the talk to convince him to get bail.  Wouldn't here have bene a cop - not David obs - from Yabbie Creek to put their case as to why he shouldn't get bail?  David to give him some credit did tell Jo to go and see Tane after  finding out his trial  was next week. 

Holden may be mentally unstable but he's not stupid, hiding himself away and being able to watch Leah drive Lacey away to a 'safe' place  and following her.  I'm probably going to get a lot of flak here but I feel sad for  Holden, he's a good looking guy so how/why does he need to get so obsessive about Lacey?

David has been a plonk about just taking  Fred's word for it that Tane is the one he's been dealing drugs with.  Kerrie  as we now know via Harper would have given Fred Tane's name.   Tane lashed out at both Cash and Harper because they were the ones there. Two edged sword Jane - Tane's  lawyer -  advising him to plead guilty to get  a lighter sentence as he knows he's not and it could go against him.   Definitely NOT a good idea to do a runner, not seeing Archie for god knows how long.  Plus if/when  he gets caught it'll add to his sentence. 

I'm not sure why Mac rang Dean thinking he could help but obs he rang Brax so must be in touch or knew where he was.  Ricky wasn't happy about it though.  There wouldn't be that many characters who would know him from before, Alf, John and Leah who had a crush on him.

[c120701]

51 minutes ago, H&Alover said:

There wouldn't be that many characters who would know him from before, Alf, John and Leah who had a crush on him.  

Marilyn and Roo (when she’s around) too.

[James Martin]

Like the new title sequence and the restoration of the duet.  I quite like the new ending and how the show is bookended with the "Welcome To Summer Bay" and "You Are Now Leaving Summer Bay" signs, nice touch.

So, where do we start?  I'll leave the Brax & Ricky return for RR1 to discuss when he watches it on Monday I think.  My big beef is that they tried to cram two massive events into one episode and it just didn't work.  I'm not sure it was right to give Holden's death second billing, not least because I thought Sophea acted that brilliantly.  She must have had to take herself to the brink and back to pull that off and act without saying very many words, at least in the Motel. 

Because of the pressure of time (much of it taken up by endless drone shots of WA) it's obvious that there was a scene where Jo found out that I'm assuming was written, if not shot, that ended up on the cutting room floor.  So it went from Jo leaving Tane with his thoughts, to her finding out about Lacey, going to the Beach House to get them clothes for Court, and then going to the Station.  That's a huge thing for there not to be as much as Jo's mobile going off, a "Dad, what do you want" and then cut to WA.  Also, why did Lacey not have a solicitor?  She was under arrest and had the right to one.  As a Cop's daughter she'd be very aware of that.  That said, great scene from David.  The system he's a part of is letting both his girls down; one daughter had to kill her stalker to stop him raping her and the other's going to lose her boyfriend for a crime he didn't commit.

I was really looking forward to this storyline when I first saw that Lacey killed Holden in self-defence but it looks like it got hacked to bits to shoehorn the Brax & Ricky return in.  I feel they could have pushed that back by a day but I know how heavily this episode was marketed when it aired in Australia.

On another note, and apologies if this has happened before, but I see we've moved on from the word "attack" sitting in for "rape" and that "sexual assault" is now permissible in the script.  I've alwas been fustrated by that distortion of the truth as I think it mocks real-life survivors by playing it down.

All that said, blatant "scene for the guys" on the beach yesterday! 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Three. Sounds like he's off to visit Martha again so that could be it for a while.

And the Idiot Plot kicks in big time. I feel desperately sorry for the actors, who are giving it their all but are having to make situations that come across as desperately contrived look believable. Lacey has absolutely no sense of self-preservation at this point. Twice she decides to go off on her own to an isolated spot when she knows Holden's hanging around. Going to get the board was bad enough, but after her friends have worked out a plan to keep her safe, her response is to tell them to go away because she wants to be on her own. It was all unbelievably stupid, and even though I can see her being confused by the delivery, she seemed to have plenty of time to close and lock the door before Holden turned up. And then it all just peters away for nothing. Lacey grabbing the lamp was both too much and too little: We can be fairly certain what's happened, so there's no real tension, yet the lack of confirmation just left me going "And?" Even the episode seemed to lose interest, cutting away to Tane being in a sulk and a promo about Brax and Ricky of all things, as if they consider Lacey to be a lower priority.

As for the other storyline, well, it's perhaps not as bad in some ways but still relies on people being thick to drag it out. Not so long ago, Tane was giving up alone time with Archie to convince Mackenzie not to take it out on Harper, now he's biting her head off himself. Jane, who's been competent every time she's on screen, suddenly morphs into Toadie from Neighbours, refusing to represent clients who don't plead guilty to things they haven't done, as if they need to make Tane's situation as hopeless as possible. And then a "cliffhanger" which apparently thinks it's making the audience anticipate the return of some rather annoying old characters, but is actually Mackenzie doing the absolute worst thing she could possibly do. Really, in what universe (apart from this one, I guess, as Brax demonstrates), would Tane disappearing make things even the slightest bit better?

[James Martin]

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Even the episode seemed to lose interest, cutting away to Tane being in a sulk and a promo about Brax and Ricky of all things, as if they consider Lacey to be a lower priority.

That really irked me to be fair, but I get those promos are made for Australia and the Brax & Ricky return episode we saw tonight (and you will, I assume, see on Monday) was hyped up to death on Seven when the Aussie TX happened.

I'm really not that bothered about it.  Again, you'll see it on Monday but it already looks like a stunt casting and the already drawn-out drugs plotline has been loosely interwoven into giving the pair a reason to be back on screen.  At least when Kirsty & Kane, or Gypsy & Will, or Fisher came back there was something of substance behind it.